Op-Ed: Tokyo court sides with Samsung

Tokyo
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A Tokyo court has ruled that Samsung has not infringed Apple patents in a decision opposite to that of a U.S. court that ruled in favor of Apple

Tokyo District Court ruled that Samsung had not infringed on an Apple patent. The three-judge panel also awarded legal costs to Samsung. The decision denied Apple's claims that both Samsung's Galaxy smartphone and tablets involved infringement of Apple patents.

The presiding judge said:The defendant's products do not seem like they used the same technology as the plaintiff's products so we turn down the complaints made by [Apple]."

Naturally Samsung welcomed the decision. The company said that it will continue to offer highly innovative products to consumers. They did not add that some of their innovative products may have features very like Apple's innovative products.

The ruling was in startling contrast to a ruling by a U.S. jury a week ago in California. That ruling was against Samsung and involved over a billion dollar damage award. The ruling may eventually result in the banning of sales of certain Samsung products if a judge so decides. The jury held that Samsung had illegally copied the iPhone and iPad "bounce-back" feature when users scroll to an end image and also a feature that enables a user to change text size with just a tap of the finger

Apple had hoped that it would collect over one million in compensation from Samsung's Japanese units for using its technology to transfer both music and video files. Apple has not said whether it would appeal the decision.

Samsung's headquarters are in South Korea. A South Korean court found that both Apple and Samsung had infringed each others patents and banned the sales of certain products from both companies.The Seoul Central District Court ordered Apple to remove the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2 from store shelves in South Korea, ruling that the products infringed on two of Samsung's telecommunications patents.

The court also ruled that Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung had infringed on one of Apple's patents related to the screen's bounce-back ability and banned sales of the Galaxy S2 and other products in South Korea.

There seems to be little consistency in these decisions. Samsung has vowed to continue fighting patent suits filed by its rival Apple. saying that a victory for Apple will result in "fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices". No doubt higher prices may also result from the costs to Samsung and Apple for all this expensive litigation meant to protect their patent rights and prevent competition. Both companies are playing the same game and consumers will pay for it.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com